Deepened Identity

Uproot Your Unhappiness

Along the Heartwood Path, one can experience the kinds of changes in perspective that will enable one to reconnect with the “whole” or the “Greater Self” (a self that includes the whole environment, as opposed to just your more narrow individual self), to improve relationships, to foster happiness, and to help preserve the planet. These changes are essential to the future success of the environmental movement because to remake the world a significant number of people will need to upgrade (convert) their perspectives.

“Before you can have a change of heart, you (have to) step outside yourself to get a larger perspective. The Ego (by which I mean one’s everyday conscious self or personality) tries to narrow every issue down to ‘What will I get out of this?’ When you reframe the question as . . . What will everyone get out of this?’ your heart will immediately feel less confused and constricted” (Chopra, 2004, p. 221).

​A better earth requires a better you. Said in a way that removes the onus on you alone—a way that also probably originates from my upbringing in the Bible Belt: For God’s Nature to be respected human nature has to be perfected. Conversion from individual self alienation to Greater Self integrity has to precede successful global conservation.

How to do that has not been the apparent aim of biological psychiatry or clinical psychology. Practitioners in both of these fields, encouraged by insurance companies that tend to support only brief therapy, seem to have given up on curing ills, favoring instead dispensing cosmetic treatments and overseeing short-term crisis management. While such symptom relief is a valid way station on the road to a cure, it does not correct the problem at its source. You can get to Gladandgreen Junction--that state of Triple A happiness that comes, in part, from deepening environmental sustainability--by living an unhappy life year after year after year. It will just be much harder to get there. You can achieve your work goals and maintain good relationships while you are sad, depressed, anxious, or angry.

Getting to Gladandgreen Junction will be made easier if you achieve the kind of “presences” going down the Heartwood Path gives to you: the presence of positive emotions, the presence of good relationships, the presence of accomplishment, and the presence of meaning. Adults need these presences to prosper. Activists need a wellspring of well-being to fuel their continuing campaigns.

The focus of the mainstream mental health profession on symptom relief rather than on curing people is one reason why the Heartwood Path is needed. Anyone who is an activist or a parent knows that, pathology or not, life goes on. Beyond relieving pathology, something is needed that helps teach people the skills necessary to thrive. “Misery may love company, but company does not love misery, and the ensuing loneliness of pessimists may be a path to illness” (Seligman, 2011, p. 206). It is not enough to do the job, big as it is, of curing misery. Beyond keeping suffering to a minimum, something is need that develops both optimism (which seems to fight cancer and foster longevity (Seligman, 2011, p. 202-203) and well-being. The Heartwood Path is needed to uproot unhappiness at its source and to reinstate the root causes of well-being.

​Since obtaining short-term symptom relief may be helpful, I am not attempting to deter people who are really suffering from seeking professional help. If it is a cure to unhappiness and an end to ecological degradation that you seek, I suggest that, if only as an adjunct to professional care, or without professional care, you make a pilgrimage down the Heartwood Path to Gladandgreen Junction. The next step in this direction is the following activity.

To Elevated Feelings...

​HumaNatureConnect Activity​

If this is not a day when you prefer to spend time in nature without an agenda, do the following activity:​​​

Start-up Protocol​

Read The Text— Use your literary sense, your mind sense, and your reason sense to read your way towards happiness and sustainability but do not just be an arm-chair traveler. Use your other natural senses as you also spend healthful, fun, and productive time in nature on your way to Gladandgreen Junction.

Attractive Natural Being— With pen and journal in hand, go to a natural area and look around to find a natural being that is attractive to you.

Appreciation and Gratefulness— While admiring your chosen being, appreciate it with your inhalations and give it gratitude with your exhalations.

Consent— Once you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to you continuously for at least ten seconds, think of your continued attraction as your consent to have a connection experience that will lead to your optimal functioning.

The Natural Senses— After gaining consent to enter into a connection experience with the natural being, have available the list of Natural Senses. Mix it up by using at least one radiation sense, one feeling sense, one chemical sense, and one mental sense, to widen your perception, and add variety to your experience.

HumaNatureConnect Activity — After reading the text, finding a natural being, appreciating it, gaining its consent, and scanning the list of natural senses, use your heightened awareness and nature-induced optimal functioning to do the following activity and engage in as many follow-up components as you see fit.

Responding Actively​

For this activity, invite a friend who has had a positive event that he or she (I’ll just use “she” from now on since usually the gender does not matter) can share with you to go together to an attractive natural area and, in a spirit of appreciation, both of you look around you to find something that is attractive. State that you want to come to the natural area because it was a suitable site (peaceful, few distractions, private, etc.) to recollect her fortunate event. The two of you need not appreciate the same attractive being. Once each of you find an aspect of nature that is attractive to both of you continuously for at least ten seconds, ask the person you invited to share her positive event with you orally or in writing. Encourage her to relive the event. The longer the recollection the better. Listen intently, without interrupting; but, when the time comes, be talkative, unreserved, and expansive in your verbal responses. Demonstrate your happiness in her good fortune. Repeat this activity with at least two other people. After you part company, write in your journal a description of the other person’s positive event, your response to her recollection, and her response to your attentiveness and appreciation of her good fortune. Note whether, after listening and positively responding to other peoples’ fortunate events, people begin to like you more; you feel more comfortable sharing intimate details; your positive, active responses improve; or you feel better about yourself.

​​​​Follow-up ProtocolNatural Systems Reflection Process​​

For best results, write down your impressions of this activity in your journal using as many of the following components as you see fit, afterwards, share your interpretations with others.​

Journal Components​

General Description — writing a general description of how you did the activity and what happened.

Freeform — writing, in freeform, what you found attractive about your natural being.

Three Qualities — writing down three qualities you found most attractive about your natural being.

Three Learnings — writing down three things you learned from this activity.

Self-esteem & Trust — writing down how, if at all, this activity changed your self-esteem or trustfulness of Nature.

Changes To Self — writing down what aspects of your self, if any, were changed by this activity.

Honor Yourself — praising yourself and your commitment to making another stop along the Heartwood Path good for yourself and the world.

I’m A Person Who . . . — writing down three different so-called “G/G Statements” using the following format: “This connection experience tells me that I am a person who__________.”

Feelings If Activity Taken — writing down a sentence about how you would feel if you lost your ability to experience this connection.

Two-Word Summary — writing down two words that summarize your response to this activity.​

To see what conversations you can inspire, share your photos and impressions about anything pertaining to your journey down the Heartwood Path on your Facebook page, on Instagram, and on other social media accounts. If you like, include “#heartwoodpath” and “#waypoint(insert waypoint number here)” wherever pertinent

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Your input is vital. Enjoy sharing!

Heartwood Path Axioms:Key Assertions From Waypoint 1.25

1.25.1.A better earth requires a better you.

1.25.2For God’s Nature to be respected human nature has to be perfected. Conversion from individual self alienation to Greater Self integrity has to precede successful global conservation.

1.25.3Anyone who is an activist or a parent knows that, pathology or not, life goes on.

Nocturnal Pilgrimage 1.25:Tend To Your Dreams Before Heading To The Next Waypoint

After a night’s sleep, and after recording your dreams, which may be trying to tell you something from your previous reading and activities, continue your conversion from separateness to integrity by moving to the next waypoint: “Pursuit Of Perfection.” This waypoint will give you some insights into the topic of seeking “perfection,” which really means “wholeness.” You will also find another approach that will help you process your Heartwood Path Activities.​

EartHeart Tips:﻿Don't forget to bookmark your current location along the Heartwood Path for easy return.﻿